1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to archery. More particularly, the present invention relates to a compound bow providing a centrally situated offset handle for enabling the archer to cast the bow from a horizontal position rather than the vertical.
2. General Background
The bow is one of the oldest of hunting tools known to man, whose development of casting a projectile from a stringed stick occurred in many prehistoric cultures at least 30 millenniums ago, and has changed very little over that time. This instrument of both war and game gathering is depicted in various cave and rock dwellings of Europe, Asia, Africa, and the New World. With the exception of firearms, and gunpowder, the bow and arrow has had the greatest impact on the outcome of the wars and conquest of the great civilizations of Europe and Asia. The bow and arrow as an instrument of war reached its greatest development after the Norman invasions of England in the Battle of Hastings, and figured heavily in England's victory over the French in the Battle of Crecy. The longbow, the principal bow which more than any other displayed the remarkable feats of the English yeoman after the conquest, displaced the much shorter Norman bow. Their superb marksmanship with the longbow is legion, deciding many a battle.
Many British monarchs practiced archery, and were responsible for its promotion and regulation of exacting standards of skill, equipment specification, practice and distribution among its subjects. As a weapon of war, the bow and arrow was replaced by firearms, and became a tool of leisure, managing to intrigue enough followers to carry on its popularity.
The bow and arrow figured significantly in the taming of the American West by explorers and settlers, as it was a formidable weapon in the hands of the American Indians, and again it was gunpowder that eventually prevailed and caused the defeat of the Indians by the settlers and the military in conquest of western lands. With the exception of primitive Indians of South America, and native tribes of Oceania, such as the Solomon Islands, New Hebrides, and New Guinea, whose culture and customs remain relatively unchanged, the bow today is recreational.
The basic bow was a self-bow, or a stave cut from a single piece of wood, which was braced or strung with sinew, and later waxed string. English yew longbows later were backed with skin, and the Asian cultures made use of a shorter composite bow, made from wood, sinew and bone. This strong, compact bow served the Nomadic horseman well under the leadership of Genghis Khan, Attila The Hun, and Alexander the Great, who all conquered on horseback.
American bow development which gained impetus after Saxton Pope and Arthur Young befriended the Yana Indian, Ishi, in 1911 saw first skin-backed yew bows and later lamination of wood, and fiberglass in the recurve bows and longbows. The latest development in bows came during the late 60's with the compound bow, with its use of cables, eccentric wheels and let off, which allowed one to mechanically pull and shoot a bow of a heavy draw weight without the effort of holding the draw weight. This has been the single most improvement in the history of archery, and has opened up a pasttime to archers who otherwise may not have taken up archery, as the compound allows one to become an efficient archer in a short period of time, and has reached a new height in technology with state of the art high energy cams, fiberglass limbs, magnesium risers, quick-change modules for adjusting the draw length, multiple draw-weights on the same bow, with take-down possibility for portability. This invention has opened up a whole new industry whose sole purpose is to come up with as many new-fangled accessories to make the compound as pleasant and pleasurable to shoot as an archer could wish.
In all this time however, the bow and arrow has remained unchanged in technique. It still requires an arrow (shaft) nocked on a string, pulled with sufficient force against the bow arm holding the central riser and limbs, until released to the target, only the material and the way that material is used has changed.
The following patents have been issued which may be considered pertinent art:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,124,014 issued to Darlington, entitled "Grip Mount For A Compound Bow", relates to an adjustable bow assembly, for allowing an attachment of a grip that is adjustable for permitting the stated variation of the draw distance. The grip is so attached for allowing it to slide either forward or rearward of the vertical handle. This feature is found in compound archery by the multi-draw wheel, and replaceable modules that permit changing of the draw length from the standard 28" cloth yard to inches below and above that. The invention is attached to a vertical portion of the bow (the riser), and in purpose does not mention horizontal casting capabilities. For it to have these capabilities, it must have a sight window and a riser designed for this express purpose, as a standard vertical riser negates stable arrow flight when turned on its side to be cast cross-wise. Even after the sight window and riser is considered, another crucial problem is the attachment of the handle to the riser area. A grip as shown in the diagram numbered 50 joined 90 degrees or right angles to the main riser section will not allow the string when nocked with an arrow to clear the armpit, preventing correct arrow full draw and release in straight arrow flight, not to mention a tremendous slapping of the biceps and upper forearm with the string when released.
U.S Pat. No. 4,603,676 issued to Louma, entitled "Bow Drawback Mechanism", is a mechanism which can be used only with the crossbow. This device as invented can only be used with a crossbow, as stated in item 20 of the summary of the invention "to provide a cocking mechanism adapted for crossbows". This said device serves the same purpose as the standard crossbow gun stock, it simply replaced the fore-end and butt-section with a forward (vertical) grip and a rearward grip trigger mechanism, joined by a connecting rod 14 that holds the fore 28 and aft 40 grips in a stationary position. All of which allows cocking of the bolt along the connecting rod, held at the aft grip 40, storing of the energy in the limbs along this connecting rod 14, until the the trigger mechanism 42 is disengaged at the rearward grip thus releasing this energy. The crossbow is described in the description of the prior art, and has its own manner of cocking and shooting procedures, and in no way shares any procedural art with conventional longbow, recurve, and compound archery.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,344,799 issued to Brown, entitled "Archery Bow", relates to a bow having an offset handle portion that allows the arrow to be cast through the center of the handle, (plane of the bow) or where the handle normally would be. It claims improved bow construction, enabling greater shooting accuracy and increased shooting power with the application of the same or less force needed in shooting a bow under normal circumstances. This claim from 1941 is no longer valid, as the compound bow that came into development in the late 60's, laid all these assertions to rest. Anyone familiar with modern archery is aware of the current ease, power, and accuracy of the compound bow with its cables, eccentrics, multi-draw length modules, and 50 percent let off, making the compound the most powerful, accurate, and efficient bow in use today.
The features of the "Archery Bow" were intended for a vertical bow, and does not address horizontal casting, as from the drawings it would have been impossible to perform, as there would be no sight window or arrow rest provided for horizontal casting of an arrow, not to mention the impossibility of clearing the armpits with the string attached to limbs with an offset handle left in its present position, along the riser path, since most of the riser section is cut away.
The remainder of the patents, i.e., U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,343,286; 4,457,287; and 4,203,412 were included in the search since they teach handles for compound bows that allow the archer to grip the bow off center.